Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Busting Out the Dance Bag

So, this adorable kid has been taking dance classes for the better part of three years now. And I have been intending to make her a dance bag ... for the better part of three years now.

This is the dance bag I finally made for her, after all this time. It took me the better part of three hours. Yep, gold-star mom, right here. : )

Anyway, this is from a free tutorial by Simply Modern Mom. I love that it's a hobo bag, instead of a too-cutesy little tote bag. E. feels pretty stylin', in fact. The fabric is Peacock Lane, with a Michael Miller Dumb Dot for the lining. You gotta have pink and black for a dance bag, right?

I made a few changes from the tutorial—since I used lightweight quilting cotton, I added some fusible interfacing to the lining. (I hate how fusible interfacing always seems to bubble and wrinkle in the finished product, so my solution was to fuse it to the lining instead of the outer fabric.) I also eliminated the braided handle, and I added a magnetic snap, because I know my daughter, and I know the contents of this bag will just end up on the floor of my SUV without some sort of closure. I used this fab tutorial from Sew Crafty Jess's blog to put in the snap—magnetic snaps couldn't be easier! Really!

Gorgeous fabrics and a great dance bag. I like the ruffled polka dot on the strap. Pink and black are the way to go... I would love you to share this (and any other bags) at my linky that's exclusively for bags and totes.... http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com/2012/01/threading-your-way-bags-and-totes-link.html

I hate using fusible interfacing and avoid it as much as I can. A tip I learned from watching Sewing with Nancy is to use other fabrics and baste them to the outer fabric. For instance to use muslin, duck cloth, or flannel for structure. They aren't as cheap as the fusibles, but work wonders and avoid puckering.

Great bag and your daughter looks so cute too. I just started a linky party for anyone that posts about using a tutorial or writes one of their own, Id love it if you ever wanted to link up so my followers could see the amazing things you do and find out more about which tuts are good ones to try. Thanks

Your little girl is sooo cute! The bag is almost as cute. ;) Great job. I made Em a little drawstring backpack 3 years ago. She's decided to move on to a purchased dance bag that a friend gave us... They grow too fast.

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